RUDIMENTS OF LEADERSHIP

My Thoughts on Leadership Part 1

On this series, the goal is to share with you the various lessons I have learnt from serving others either from the rear as a follower or the head of the pack. The goal is to inspire you to become a better leader, or at the very least push you on to becoming one.

The strength of leadership rests very squarely on service. No one can become a good or great leader without the heart of service, and have not served another. Serving others does not only afford you the platform to meet the needs of people, it is a verifiable school and training institute that helps to build and hone skills necessary in leadership.

In my experience, many of the people who came into leadership via the highway of privilege almost always mess things up; this is the definite repercussion of the lack of training. And it is true that you cannot give what you do not have. The unfortunate and erroneous consequence of coming into leadership because of personal or family wealth, educational background, political connections etc. is that such people see it as a position that affords them authority over people and not as an avenue to serve others. Trust me, enlightened leadership is about service, not position.

From the beginning of time, positions of leadership are natural offspring of necessity in a group. Leaders are not elected or selected because it sounds good to do so; they are because there is a need for someone or some people to provide inspiration, education, correction, and direction etc. for the rest of the group. In the many instances where good leadership is sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity it is because this cardinal doctrine is missed. And the downside is that everyone suffers as a result.

Very often you see somewhat successful leaders get caught up in their pride and ego, because they need or want to portray a persona that is not necessary. They want to be seen as intelligent, clever, strong, powerful, as the boss or because they want to take all the glory for everything to themselves. These kinds of leaders will fail in the long run; they are in leadership for the wrong reasons. The motivating factor for them is always SELF. Good leaders do not struggle with others for the spotlight, because the center stage is not the reason they are in positions of authority. Great leaders are luminous; they give light to others to shine. In the place of service they are too busy fashioning out other great leaders than to struggle for a place at the table. As a matter of fact, they are the table in a sense.

A positional and ego driven leader is not huge on people skills, and they are poor listeners. They lack the ability to relate well with people and are very poor in understanding people even though they listen. People like this often listen to respond, not to know or learn. Consequently they are also locking in the ability to empathize. Sympathy is good, but empathy is what is more needed in a leader. The ability to sincerely put yourself in the shoes of others and to experience their pains sets leaders apart and connects people in ways you cannot imagine. There are few things that evoke complete loyalty like empathy.

Look around, do you have leaders who are egoistic and position driven? Then you need to evaluate yourself because you may already be picking up attributes that will do you more harm than good. As a leader, which of these categories of leader are you? If you need to make some changes, please do; a lot of people are looking up to you, probably many more people than you know.

I will stop here for now. Watch out for the other parts of this series. This is an introduction on a series on leadership and I implore you to take this journey with me. I am hoping that we will learn some things together. Kindly leave your comments below and we shall respond to them. Thank you.